The Impact of Online Faculty Characteristics on Student Satisfaction via the Community of Inquiry Framework

Patrizi, Larry A.

ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, TUI University

This study examined the relationship between student satisfaction with faculty characteristics via the community of inquiry (CoI) framework. The CoI framework includes cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence. Subsets of teaching presence were explored more deeply by including subsets facilitation of discourse and direct instruction. Online learning is a rapidly growing area of education; however, when compared to traditional education very little is known about faculty recruiting best practices. In this study, 94 online faculty members were investigated. There were 1500 students that completed 2728 surveys. Faculty teach and students often take more than one class per session allowing for more surveys than students. Multiple linear hierarchical regression analysis was used to determine if a significant relationship existed between the five independent variables: type of degree (non-doctoral or doctoral degree), mode of degree (online or traditional), discipline, and years of teaching experience, one covariate (gender); and three dependent variables: cognitive presence, social presence and teaching presence. The findings indicated that student satisfaction and several faculty characteristics had a statistical significant relationship on cognitive presence (research question one). Type of degree was statistically significant with a negative correlation. The negatively correlation indicates that instructors with a non-doctoral background had a greater student satisfaction than instructors with a doctoral background. Mode of degree was statistically significant with a positive correlation indicating that instructors with a traditional background had more student satisfaction than instructors with an online background. Degree disciplines including education, science/math, business/management, and social science/political science also had positive correlations. No statistical relationship existed between cognitive presence and the gender covariate, and years of teaching experience. The findings indicated that student satisfaction and certain faculty characteristics had a statistical significant relationship on social presence (research question two) and in the business/management discipline. The correlation of degree discipline and social presence is a positive correlation. No statistical relationship existed between social presence and other faculty characteristics including the gender covariate, type of degree, mode of degree, degree discipline in education, degree discipline in science/math, degree discipline in history/humanities, degree discipline in social science/political science, and years of teaching experience. The non-significant results do not mean students did not experience satisfaction, it merely points out that particular faculty characteristics can be identified as being a contributor to student satisfaction or not being a contributor to student satisfaction. The findings indicated that student satisfaction and certain faculty characteristics have a statistically significant relationship on teaching presence (third research question) for all faculty characteristics except for years of teaching experience. The gender covariate was negatively correlated with teaching presence indicating that male instructors had greater student success than female instructors. This finding is unique to this study and does not mirror the rest of education nationwide or the basis of previous research discussed by the literature in this study. It must be noted that APUS students are primarily male and the faculty in this study are primarily female. Type of degree was also negatively correlated with teaching experience showing that faculty with a non-doctoral degree had greater student satisfaction than faculty with a doctoral degree. Mode of degree revealed a positive correlation indicating that instructors who received their degree from a traditional institution had greater student satisfaction then instructors who received their degree from an online institution. Degrees in education, science/math, business/management, and social science/political science had positive correlations with teaching presence. No statistical relationship existed between teaching presence and years teaching experience. In conclusion, the results of this study indicated that several characteristics impact student satisfaction in online education. The contribution of this study demonstrates that to increase student satisfaction in online classrooms, institutions that focus on primarily online classes should pay attention to certain faculty characteristics in an effort to create promote instructors the ability to achieve student success. Additional study is needed to specify those characteristics and the degree to which they impact satisfaction. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]